Brawn Gp Cars
BGP 001 The Brawn BGP 001 is a Formula One world championship winning racing car, designed and built by Brawn GP. It is the first Formula One car used by the newly-assembled Brawn GP team, to contest the 2009 Formula One season. It was unveiled at Silverstone in the United Kingdom on March 6, 2009. Team driver Jenson Button gave the BGP 001 its first test run on the same day it was launched.Later a more comprehensive testing and development programme saw the car appear at the Circuit de Catalunya on March 9–12 and at the Circuito de Jerez on March 15–18, before the Australian Grand Prix on March 29.The car has seen success since and by the time of the Turkish Grand Prix it had won six of the seven races with a constant podium appearance. The car was also involved in the diffuser appeal which was rejected by the FIA deeming the car's diffuser legal. Remarkably, it was revealed that the modifications made to the car to accomodate its Mercedes engine saw six inches removed from the rear end, severaly compromising the car and that by the time the team realised how good it was, there was no time to commission a new design. Ross Brawn also admitted that there were fundamental problems wih the car, stating that it was too heavy, the centre of gravity too high, and that some of the parts were not good for the car. Given the limited budget and development time, only three chassis were ever made (larger teams, such as McLaren build as many as eight): one for each driver and a spare. The spare was used by Rubens Barrichello in Singapore, while Jenson Button used the same chassis in every free practice and qualifying session and race between the 2009 Australian Grand Prix and the 2009 Brazilian Grand Prix. This meant that he won the championship in the single oldest car on the grid. The BGP 001 was designed throughout 2008 and 2009 by Honda and then Brawn after the change over. It was designed, by Loïc Bigois, in similar respects to all the other cars on the grid with a moulded carbon fibre and honeycomb composite monocoque and a front and rear wishbone and pushrod activated suspension system. Yet the car had one difference, which was focused on the rear so-called 'double-decker diffuser'. The diffuser is at the rear of the car and is a route to get downforce and puts the air under the car to good use. The BGP 001 had a different central channel to its diffuser with the shape of the structure being used to create advanced type of double-decker design. The diffuser's controversial aspect was the hole in the rear which increases the speed of airflow as it heads towards the higher rear venturi section, where it expands and creates more downforce. Other teams argued that the presence of the hole is against the regulations. At the first race of the season in Australia an official complaint was launched by Renault, Red Bull and Ferrari against the diffusers of the Williams FW31, Toyota TF109 and the BGP 001 saying that they were illegal.However the race stewards did not share that view and rejected the other teams' complaints. Subsequently the car was cleared to race in Melbourne. The same problem was faced in Malaysia after BMW tried again but failed. Over the controversy the 'non-diffuser' teams, Ferrari, BMW Sauber, Red Bull, lodged an official appeal against the design and the date was set for 2009 for the FIA International Court of appeal (ICA); putting the first two races under appeal meaning the cars' first two wins of the season with Button could have been removed. After discussing the legality of the diffusers throughout Tuseday a verdict was becoming clear and on Wednesday 14th the ICA concluded that the diffusers' design were legal and complied with the 2009 regulations rejecting the teams' appeal. With the diffuser change, the new rules in place for the 2009 season required cars to have narrower and higher rear wings and wider and lower front wings, designed to reduce air disturbance for following cars and hence make overtaking easier. Slick tyres were also re-introduced in the 2009 Formula One season, having been absent since 1998,this said to increase tyre grip by about 20%. The BGP 001 uses a Mercedes-Benz FO108W engine, supplied through a customer deal. For the 2009 regulations, the engine is a naturally aspirated unit with eight cylinders in a 'V' configuration and is rev-limited to 18,000 rpm. Originally the car was engineered for a Honda-designed engine, however when Honda announced their withdrawal from the sport, a customer deal with Mercedes was obtained. It was reported that deals with Ferrari and Mercedes were available, the latter being chosen as it was simpler to integrate into the existing car. However, an unnamed senior Brawn GP engineer, after the title winning race in Brazil, was reported saying that significant and unconventional changes were made to accommodate the FO108W engine. Unlike Mercedes' other customers Force India who take supply of both the engine and a McLaren-designed transmission, the BGP 001 uses a semi-automatic transmission designed in-house at Brawn. This provides seven forward gears and one reverse gear, and is operated using two paddles located on the steering wheel. As with the engine installation compromises were made with the gearbox. It does not sit in the ideal position because the crank-centre height on the Mercedes engine is different from the Honda. So far in the 2009 season, Brawn have not opted to use a Kinetic Energy Recovery System, which would provide an extra 80 bhp (60 kW) for up to 6.6 seconds a lap, due to the constraints such a device would place on the design of the car and the extra weight it would add. Ross Brawn has suggested that a KERS is not currently a high priority for the team. Per the 2009 Formula One regulations, Brawn GP are limited to using eight engines per car throughout the season. The limited availability of engines led to a record being broken by the Brawn team; it was the first time one particular build of an engine had won three Grands Prix in succession. Category:Brawn GP Category:Cars